How administrative data can uncover the relationship between children’s health and education

Health and education are inextricably linked

Research into children’s health and education is often conducted separately, as historically it has not been possible to bring together data from these different sectors at scale. But this type of siloed research does not give us the full picture of how children navigate across different services to meet their needs.

For example, a child with a chronic health condition may miss school due to frequent hospitalisations, and might therefore need extra support within the education system in order to catch up. Hospital admissions for young people with stress-related diagnoses – an early warning for mental health issues - are more common during term-time than school holidays.

In order to understand how to give children the best start in life, we need to use data that is linked up across these different parts of their lives.

Administrative data research can help fill this gap

Whenever we access services such as the NHS, a record is created that helps organisations fulfil their day-to-day roles. Because these records cover such a large portion of the population, including people who wouldn’t typically volunteer to participate in a study, they are an incredibly valuable resource for research. When de-identified data from within or across different sectors is combined, it can provide a deep understanding of how people interact with services.

For example, linking:

  • data from hospitals for babies that are born too early, with
  • educational data from their time in school

can help us understand the needs of preterm babies. This in turn can inform how we might best provide support for them during the early years, to help them prepare for school.

We’ve been able to do exactly this type of research by developing a new resource called ECHILD. ECHILD brings together de-identified data that is routinely collected as part of services delivered to children and young people, including from hospitals, schools, and children’s social care.

Linking data across the life course, from cradle to grave, is incredibly informative. We bring together different pieces of the jigsaw to create the bigger picture of people’s needs, and every additional piece of information helps. Using data in this way allows us to understand how different parts of our lives fit together, and ultimately allows people in government to make decisions in a more joined up way.

Hear more about this

Research using ECHILD has the potential to help improve outcomes for children

Insights generated by research using ECHILD have the potential to shape policies and inform how services are provided to children and families. Because this data covers such a large part of the population (~20 million children born from September 1984 – August 2022) in England, it includes anyone in this group who attends NHS services or state schools. That means we have the numbers to look at rare diseases and outcomes.

We can also include people who are harder to reach in traditional research – for example those with contact with social care services, or those with mental health conditions. Using this data can facilitate research that is relevant to the whole population and informative to policy makers. We can answer questions about how best to intervene, when, and with whom, to support children’s health and education.

We’ve been using this data to answer a broad range of research questions, from looking at whether special educational needs provision in schools can improve health outcomes, and how chronic liver disease in childhood might be related to cognitive development, to how changes to child benefits might influence child health and school readiness.

Researchers can now apply to access de-identified data in ECHILD for research that will create measurable public benefits relating to the provision of healthcare and education.


Apply for an ADR UK Research Fellowship using ECHILD

ADR UK is currently inviting applications for research fellowships using ADR England flagship datasets for policy-relevant research. Applicants can choose from a range of datasets for their projects, including ECHILD.

Fellowships can be up to 18 months in duration, up to a maximum of £200,000 at full economic cost. The deadline for expressions of interest is 28 March 2024. 

Find out more and apply

Share this: